Abstract
This study aims at concluding the current evidence on the therapeutic effects of acupoints stimulation for cancer patients with anxiety and depression. Randomized controlled trials using acupoints stimulation for relieving anxiety and/or depression in cancer patients were searched, and 11 studies were finally included, of which eight trials compared acupoints stimulation with standard methods of treatment/care, and acupoints stimulation showed significantly better effects in improving depression than using standard methods of treatment/care. Four studies compared true acupoints stimulation with sham methods, and no significant differences can be found between groups for either depression or anxiety, although the pooled effects still favored true intervention. For the five studies that evaluated sleep quality, the results were conflicting, with three supporting the superiority of acupoints stimulation in improving sleep quality and two demonstrating no differences across groups. Acupoints stimulation seems to be an effective approach in relieving depression and anxiety in cancer patients, and placebo effects may partially contribute to the benefits. However, the evidence is not conclusive due to the limited number of included studies and the clinical heterogeneity identified among trials. More rigorous designed randomized, sham-controlled studies are necessary in future research.
Highlights
Cancer is one of the major health problems in the world
Six studies focused on breast cancer [26, 29, 31,32,33,34], one study was on lung cancer [30], one study was on gynecological cancer [36], and three studies [27, 28, 35] involved more than two types of malignancies
This study indicated that sham electroacupuncture can produce some treatment effects to improve the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)-D scores in cancer patients (P = 0.0088), while, for anxiety and sleep quality, there were no significant differences between groups
Summary
Cancer is one of the major health problems in the world. The incidence of cancer and the related death have significantly increased during the past decades. The survival rate has been rising over the past decade, the negative cancer experiences and the side effects associated with cancer treatments (e.g., pain, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting) can result in a wide range of health problems, which contain physical issues and psychological and emotional distresses including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [5,6,7,8,9]. The negative emotional feelings can contribute to significantly undesirable impacts on cancer patients, leading to sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, deterioration of quality of life, and so forth [15]. The psychological and emotional disorders can increase the risk of recurrence and mortality of cancer as psychological distresses could impair patients’ immune response [16]
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